One feature of North American evangelical Christianity
disturbs me: the lack of interest in the doctrine of the
gospel (the worst aspect of a general lack of interest in
biblical studies). I do not complain of a lack of zeal in
witnessing, but there seems to be almost a feeling that,
"seeing I have believed the gospel, my understanding
of it must be satisfactory."
Granted that the Holy Spirit is able to use the feeblest
voice, even a mere scrap of a tract, a few words from a
radio broadcast, perhaps only one verse of scripture, to
bring someone to repentance and faith. I do not wish to
appear to limit the power of God unto salvation. But if
only for our own spiritual nourishment, we need to
ponder and meditate on the wonderful gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ which has brought us to eternal life,
and on the many other glorious blessings into which it
has brought us.
Since my retirement over 12 years ago the study of the
gospel has been my chief occupation, and I was deeply
humbled to find that the message which I had been
proclaiming for nearly half a century was not, in fact,
the biblical gospel. And yet it pleased God to bless my
teaching to the edification of others. Whether or not my
current understanding of the gospel doctrine and
message is wholly in line with scripture, I am sure that
it is closer than what I formerly held and taught. I feel
that I still have much to learn, in so little time.
Curiosity, the impulse to find answers, along with
dissatisfaction with current answers, or even a total
lack of any answer, is what propels science. Should
we not have a somewhat similar curiosity about
spiritual matters, and even wonder if answers currently
being given are truly satisfactory ones?
For twenty-five years I have edited and published a
paper of biblical studies, "Open Forum," exercising no
veto over other Christians' interpretations and
viewpoints, even when I thought them quite wrong.
Sometimes arguments put forward by others compelled
me to modify my own beliefs.
I invite everyone to visit my fairly new web site,
"Christian Good News," with two sets of papers. The
latest issue of Open Forum, #59, appears in full. The
other set is mostly my own writings (some of which
have appeared in Open Forum) mostly on various
aspects of the gospel. The URL is
http://www.mnsi.net/~bobg/%20Welcome.html
I hope that some of you will be stimulated, perhaps
even to the point of starting an argument, or to
convince me that I'm wrong in this or that point. I
realize that some of the articles are long, and that you
are busy and have many other things to read.
However, I still invite your visit.
I am not intending to start a discussion of the gospel
in this group. I am simply inviting you to look at my site.
Robert L. Greenhow